the magic tree house returns
by rookanga
Summary: Teenage Jack and Annie haven't seen the magic treehouse in years. But that all changes when they see Teddy and Kathleen in their school, with no memory of Camelot. Dun dun dun.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Magic Tree House books**

Jack is slammed violently into the lockers.

_"Look at this loser. You wear glasses, four-eyes!"_

"Hey man, take a hit."

Jack straightens up. It isn't his bully from the small elementary school he had attended calling him four-eyes. Instead, it's his best friend Tyler from his huge county high school giving him a friendly greeting.

Jack apologizes to a boy he'd hit. For a second he looks like someone Jack knew a long time ago, but Jack shakes it off. _Not possible,_ he tells himself.

"What're you holding?" Ty says, picking up one of the books in the stack he is carrying to class. "_Guns, Germs, and Steel_? What the hell _is_ this?"

"Ah, yeah, it's just something for Grenville's class."

"You going there now?"

Jack shifts the books in his arms. "Yeah."

"No you're not, Skinny, we have practice."

Jack glares at him. "Why the fuck was I not informed? Now what am I supposed to do with these?"

Ty shrugs. "Put them back in your locker."

"My locker's on the fourth floor."

"So take them to the locker rooms. I don't know."

Jack is the wide receiver for the high school football team, the Henry S. Commager Ravens. None of the guys on the football team know that he loves books.

Heading out to the football field with Ty, Jack sees Annie running toward him. "Jack! Jack!" she calls.

"Catch up with you, man," Jack says.

"Jack! You'll never guess what just happened. I saw Kathleen!"

"Kathleen?"

"Yeah. Remember, the selkie?"

"Yeah, I remember."

_"We will see you soon, Jack and Annie. We promise. Onward!" "Teddy, onward doesn't work in the Treehouse."_

Unlike Jack, who was a jock yet wasn't, Annie had truly done a Jekyll and Hyde. She still wore her hair in braids, but she had dyed her hair black and hangs out with the stoners. Fuck, she _is_ a stoner.

Annie looks truly excited about something for once, so Jack hates to do this. "Annie, listen to me. There is no way Kathleen is here."

Annie narrows her eyes at him. "You don't think it's possible?"

"No," says Jack, shaking off the memory of the boy in the hallway. The one that looked like Teddy.

"Fuck you," she says, and storms off.

Jack sits on the porch and listens to the crickets.

_"Listen to the crickets," Annie said._

_ Jack listened. The cricket chirps sounded louder than ever._

_ "Their ancestors lived in the time of the Dragon King," said Annie._

_ "Oh, Brother," said Jack._

_ "Right now the grownups are telling the little crickets a legend," said Annie._

_ "Yeah, sure," said Jack._

_ "A legend passed down from their ancestors," said Annie._

_ Jack smiled. He didn't want to admit it, but the cricket noise _did_ sound like storytelling. He could almost hear them saying, _Dragon King, Dragon King, Dragon King.

Jack sighs. He'd been distracted at football practice and Annie hadn't spoken to him for the rest of the day.

It hurts. When she was eight, Annie would have been fighting him, telling him she could _feel_ that they were here.

But it's funny. Now Jack, the logical one, can _feel_ it. Why had he told Annie that it wasn't possible for Kathleen and Teddy to be running around their school somewhere, invisible in the masses? Because she would be disappointed if it wasn't them?

Jack jumps up and runs to his room. He opens a drawer in his desk and digs to the bottom. He pulls out his Master Librarian letters glinted gold in the evening sunlight coming through his window.

Jack goes to his bookshelf and gets his yearbook out. He'd never gone through it; there were too many people. Now he lies on his bed and reads every name, looks at every picture, even when his sight blurs. And finally he finds someone.

It's Kathleen. Her dark brown waves are pulled back by an aqua flower clip. _Kathleen Murphy,_ it reads.

Jack keeps reading until he sees Teddy's face. The caption underneath says _Alan Trevelyan_. Jack is confused, until he remembers Teddy isn't Teddy's real name, and he'd actually told Jack and Annie to call him Ted, which they'd tried to do for a while but soon forgot.

Jack crosses the hallway to Annie's room. "What do you want?" she groans.

Jack shows her the yearbook. "You were right," he says. "We need to find these people."


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi everyone! I was going to spend ****even more**** time writing this chapter, but I was rereading my comments and decided I couldn't just not update! So to all the people who asked about why Jack and Annie are the way they are now, remember how much they loved the tree house and all their fantasy friends. When that all disappeared, they were a little angry. And now that Jack and Annie are focusing more on Teddy and Kathleen and less on being angry, there's going to be less cursing. But there still will be some. Have you heard teenagers these days? And I don't own ****_The Magic Treehouse_**** books.**

Jack and Annie walk into school together for the first time in years. They had been uplifted thinking about their task the night before but now, looking at the masses of people shouting and laughing in front of the school, they are becoming discouraged.

They stand in front of the building, other students bumping past them, until Annie says, "Come on, Jack. We can do this. So when did you think you saw Teddy?"

"It was around twelve forty five on the first floor near the good bathrooms."

"Okay," Annie says. "I saw Kathleen in the gym during my lunch. So I'll go there again, and you go back to where you saw Teddy, and then we'll force them to the prop room behind the auditorium."

Jack nods and goes to class. The whole time he can't relax. Ty keeps punching him in the arm, which is good because it causes Jack to think about something other than the tree house for a few seconds, but it is bad because Ty works out practically every day after school and is so strong he makes wrestlers cower in fear. (Or at least Jack thinks so.)

Jack leans up against the lockers, he tries to look at every face, but there are so many people rushing by. He worries that he will never find Teddy.

_"If you ever need help, we will find you."_

Why isn't he here? Jack can't see him. His phone rings. It's Annie.

"Jack, where are you?" she says. "I'm in the prop room with Kathleen."

"I can't find him," Jack says. "He's not here."

"Hang on a second," Annie says. Muffled, "Kathleen, do you know Alan Trevelyan? Well, you'd better tell me if you know what's good for you."

"Annie!" Jack says. "Don't threaten her!"

"She says Teddy has Garvey now. He's a math teacher. Where's the classroom?"

"Well, where is it!"

"She doesn't know. Somewhere on the second floor, she says."

"Well, I can't just burst through the door and take Teddy," Jack cries.

"Great," Annie mutters. "Our _fucking_ plan is going up in flames. Now we'll never be able to talk to them together. Kathleen will report us to school security and we'll be expelled for kidnapping."

"Listen, I'm coming over to where you are," Jack says. "Maybe if she realizes we're not a threat, she can help us meet Teddy."

"Nobody in their right mind would believe us."

"Let's hope she's not in her right mind."

"Oh for God's sake, Jack, don't hang up the phone. Stop trying to be a bad action movie." Annie hangs up.

"Stop trying to be a trying-too-hard-to-be-funny action movie," Jack says to the phone.


End file.
